Reevaluation of Ifosfamide in Patients with Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

We undertook a phase II study of ifosfamide with mesna in advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to reevaluate efficacy of the drug. Twenty patients without prior chemotherapy were entered onto chemotherapy with ifosfamide (2 g/m2) and mesna (400 mg/m2×3 times/day) for three consecutive days every 3 weeks. Two of the evaluable 20 patients achieved partial response corresponding to a response rate of 10% (95% confidence limit, 1.3% to 33.3%) . The most frequent side effects were alopecia and nausea, however, all of the toxicities including hematuria were mild and less than Grade 3 by the WHO criteria. Results of the study indicated that ifosfamide had only marginal activity against NSCLC by this dose schedule in combination with mesna. Because of the mild toxicities, further clinical trials with high-dose if osf amide in combination with mesna may be warranted against NSCLC.